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Improving Medical School Curricula and Roma Access to Health Care in Hungary
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Council of the European Union, “Directive 2000/43/EC of the Council: Implementing the Equal Treatment Between Persons Irrespective of Racial or Ethnic Origin”, Brussels, June 20, 2000.
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The EU Race Directive serves as the basis for anti-discrimination legislation for a number of EU member countries including Hungary, whose anti-discrimination legislation was notably lacking until only recently. The directive provides a conceptual framework which includes both indirect and direct discrimination, outlines a scope of applications as well as a series of remedies and enforcements, and designates bodies for the promotion of equal treatment.
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Republic of Hungary Action Plan, Decade of Roma Inclusion, 2005.
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The Roma Decade Action Plan of the Republic of Hungary includes health as one of the four priority areas for implementation and improvement in the 2005-2015 target years. It asserts its aims as enforcing equal rights, dissolving prejudice, improving health conditions, access to health care and quality of life, and strengthening social security. It outlines a series of targets and indicators to achieve these goals including addressing concerns of discrimination in the health care system from both the client and provider perspective, and especially focuses on Roma women in the health care system.
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Rita Izsák, “’Gypsy Rooms’ and other Discriminatory Treatment Against Romani Women in Hungarian Hospitals”, ERRC Roma Rights Quarterly, 2004.
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Throughout 2003, the European Roma Rights Center conducted field research on alleged health care discrimination of Roma women in Hungary. Interviews with more than 130 women in three counties revealed discrimination throughout the Hungarian health care system including: segregated maternity wards, forced sterilization, lower standards and improper conduct of medical staff treating Roma women, verbal abuse, unqualified medical practitioners assigned to Roma patients, and money extortion. The ERRC explains the prior difficulty of bringing these cases to court as reluctant victims who fear further discrimination. Furthermore, they suggest that the relatively recent adoption of Hungary’s anti-discrimination act will remove this obstacle by allowing NGOs to litigate on behalf of a large number of people affected by such discrimination.
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